Levy: Ramirez’s rhetoric divides the community

In the wake of the press conference by various activists after the brutal beating of an African American by four Hispanics in Nassau County, I was asked whether these activists provided a useful voice to our public debate.

Certainly there are numerous responsible activists such as Deacon Fernando Quinones and Betty Velez who lend legitimate advocacy to those in need. On the other hand, publicity-seeking self promoters such as Reverend Allan Ramirez serve only to inflame tensions and further divide the community. Egotists such as Ramirez build their careers mainly around getting media attention, and they are well aware that nothing attracts the media more than playing the race card.

Unfortunately, their shameless, over-the-top hyperbole trivializes those cases where racial violence and insensitivity are truly evident. Some examples:

After Brookhaven Town, assisted by Suffolk County police and the district attorney, prosecuted an absentee landlord for illegally allowing nearly 60 men to live in a 900-square-foot house, Ramirez did not attack the owner for exploiting the immigrant residents and exposing them to harm by living in a fire trap; rather he criticized the authorities for engaging in what he termed “ethnic cleansing.” That is a term which should be reserved for governments engaging in genocide or warlords massacring millions. Yet, Ramirez gives moral equivalency to a situation where a local government rightfully closed down an overcrowded fire trap.

When Suffolk County sought to report sex offenders, gang members and drug dealers in our jail who are here illegally to the federal government for deportation, Ramirez called this action racist and xenophobic.

When Suffolk County told companies seeking county bids that they would be required to verify that they were hiring legal workers as per federal law and paying worker’s compensation insurance, Ramirez compared individuals supporting this bill to Bull Connor unleashing dogs on terrified African-American children who were being integrated into all-white schools.

When Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was tragically murdered because he was Hispanic, Ramirez’s first remarks were not to express remorse for Mr. Lucero’s death or anger at the perpetrators, but rather to blame this county executive for having allegedly been responsible for the death due to my opposition to illegal immigration. To quote Ramirez exactly, “The blood is on Steve Levy’s hands.” This type of shameful hyperbole does nothing to heal a stunned populace, but rather inflames passions, divides us as a community and distracts us from the true insidious roots of hate.

When Suffolk police released records showing there had been only one reported hate crime against Hispanics in 2008, Ramirez immediately and irresponsibly disparaged the police department by claiming they had to be engaged in a conspiracy to cover up these crimes. He deliberately ignored the fact that there is a difference between a “hateful act” and a “hate crime” under the narrow definitions of state law. He also ignored that Westchester County and all of New York City each recorded only a single hate crime for that same year under this strict definition.

Earlier this year, Ramirez shamelessly staged a press conference in the village of Patchogue alleging that a high school student of Hispanic descent was the victim of a hate crime after he was in a tussle with a peer at the bus stop. The only problem was no one else in the world thought it to be a hate crime, primarily because there were individuals of Hispanic and mixed descent on both sides of the fight and injuries were very minor. Even the victim’s own sister at that very press conference said it was not a hate crime.

Many respectable activists do a wonderful job of preaching tolerance and promoting unity. So as long as grandstanders such as Allan Ramirez are marginalized, we will continue make significant progress in uniting the many diverse communities that make Long Island so great.

15 comments

Well said, and in typical Levy style, he has the courage and conviction not to mince words (unlike the legion of sniveling kiss-ups who make up most of Long Island’s political culture.) “Reverend” Ramirez is an insufferable racial narcissist, who can’t seem to get that we taxpaying citizens don’t equate an opposition to open borders and the trampling of civil law with race hatred. He actually believes that Long Islanders, who, practically to the last resident, are all immigrants or recently descendants of one, need his condescending tutelage on tolerance.

Quite the opposite- it is “Reverend” Ramirez who needs to learn how to respect the wishes and the rule of law of the people who live here. It is he who needs to learn what “tolerance” means. And he needs to find the humility to do it.

Sadly, Steve Levy clings to the notion that there was only one hate crime directed against Latinos in the ten months preceeding the killing of Marcelo Lucero, in spite of the extensive evidence that the very group of young people involved in the attack themselves participated in other such hate crimes.

As for the use of divisive language and publicity seeking, the County Executive might want to examine his own record.

There are Reverend Ramirez’s all over the Nation , Many of them Congressmen and Senators ! The fact these people are here Illegaly means nothing to them ! Soon Obama and the Democrats WILL shove 20 mmillion Illegal Aliens down Americas with an unenforenceable AMNESTY and Chain Migration resulting in 35-40 Million Uneducated , unskilled non english speaking people who will require a wealth of Public Services for generations ! And their only thought is to bring 40 million new Democrats to the poles !!! God Help US ! It will be the end of AMERICA as we know it .

Well Max,since you asked me so politely, I would point to his notorious characterization of the murder of Marcelo Lucero in November by a group of seven young men bent on attacking immigrants as a “one day story”.

The CE did indeed say that, and I think people have jumped on it to justify a pro-illegal position they already held. For all the coverage this statement got, I see no context in which to judge it. I doubt the thugs who murdered Lucero (one of whom was Hispanic, by the way) were getting any inspiration from Levy or anything he said, as “Reverend” Ramirez implies. There have been far more “attacks” by illegal aliens on American in this country than the other way around.

What is NOT a “one day story” is the exploitation of millions of American citizens whose jobs and standard of living were slaughtered to the interests of the right, who think nothing of cheating anyone so long as they pay as little as possible for labor, and the left, which sees this, wrongly, as a “human rights” issue.

The real citizens of America have no champion in this- except for men like Steve Levy.

Me thinks Steve Levy doth protest too much. He is the scoundrel politician who said, “This is a one day story.”

Marcelo Lucero’s murder was not the 1st “Beaner Jumping” by the racist Caucasian Crew led by Jeff Conroy. There have been dozens of documented reports of Beaner Jumping in Patchogue. Newday, the Post, NY times have all provided articles with the facts to these racist tactics. Then read the comment sections of these articles. The supporters of the Crew said, “Sure we know about the Beaner Jumpings but they only did it one day a week.”

Unfortunately, it took the death of Lucero to spark the media attention so that these outrageous acts can be first publicized then stopped.

I think Reverend Ramirez is a hero. He has the courage to stand up to the popular rhetoric of those like Levy who won his last election by the hateful, anti-immigrant diatribes so popular amongst the restrictionist crowd.

Rev. Ramirez also cites the long standing broken policies with our current Immigration policies. If one wanted to study, you would go back to the Immigration act of 1924 and previously the Chinese Exclusion Act to learn where our Immigration policies began to be broken.

Levy has a lot to learn. If he wants Long Island to WIN and he wants to WIN in the next election, he needs to get off of his high horse and study the Immigration issues and actually LISTEN to the people who are advocating we need Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Instead of owning up to the fact that his rhetoric against the “kitchen help” (i.e., vulnerable Latino immigrants) was unnecessary, insensitive and dangerous, he side-steps responsibility and lashes out at the respected and courageous Reverend Alan Ramirez.

It’s classic Levy — and the tactics are right out of the Karl Rove playbook. Commit the crime/offense and then deflect attention by zeroing in on someone — usually the poor soul with the gall to speak truth to power — and trash them mercilessly.

BTW: This letter is not intended to put this matter behind him and move on. On the contrary, it’s yet another opportunity for Levy to toot the silent whistle of nativism while playing the victim. Unfortunately, it’s a political two-fer Levy has honed into an art form — and for which he’s not been held to account.

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January 06, 2010
EL QUIJOTE DEL GED WITH DAY LABORERS IN FARMINGVILLE

By Profesor Martin Danenberg
“El Quijote del GED”

FOR ALL COMMUNITY RESIDENTS TO READ INCLUDING STEVE LEVY
THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
The right to rent apartments
The right to be paid minimum wage for work
The right to receive workman’s compensation benefits
The right to sue in court
The right to get married
The right to attend public schools
The right to take the GED across the United States
The right to go to the city and state universities in New York
And there is much more.
Yes undocumented immigrants can be deported, but they have basic rights that each elected official must announce and respect in the United States.
Farmingville, New York was the site of one of the most famous attacks on immigrants in recent history and I arrived there to network with Omar Enriquez and Saul Linares to help the day laborers who were waiting in the cold. As soon as I approached in my car, the men came at me hoping that I could hire them to do work. I noticed more than twenty day laborers on three of the corner streets waiting for work, but there was no work. When Omar and Saul arrived, Omar noticed me walk over to the group, calling out my famous nickname “El Quijote.” Instantly immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, other countries were calling out “El Quijote” and they warmed up to me fast. Omar spoke about the importance of the census and I told the men that education is the key in the 21st century and not just hard work alone. Let me tell all of you who read this. I was totally impressed with the warmth of these Hispanic men on this cold day. The picture you see represents how the day laborers felt hearing me tell them that what they were told on this occasion was “not fraud and not lies.”

I wanted to be in Glen Cove years ago with the Hispanic organizations that came to New York to help the Mexican immigrants in Farmingville. Nobody helped me achieve my goals, but now I have the day laborers by my side. We want them to learn English and get their GED (English or Spanish). We also want to defuse the violence and calm down the hatred by having all elected officials tell constituents and their children that those immigrants have rights that have to be respected.